In the last retrans round, Gray settled for carriage of its digital second channels and received less than it had bargained for. This time, with 40 digital channels up and operating, it's shooting for analog carriage and possibly payments, too.

But it's not all bad news. While the credit crunch has forced some of the private equity players to the sidelines and scuttled some big deals, established station groups have a chance to make smaller, strategic buys with fewer bidders.

The publicly-traded station group controlled by Vincent Young hasn't enjoyed the rise in value that many of its peers have. It's still hobbled by its ill-advised buy of KRON San Francisco, an MNT affiliate that generates little cash flow or interest from buyers.

The nature of private equity ownership leads to TV station groups going quickly from making bids to accepting them. Just ask the folks at Nexstar and LIN.